head to head · open source
puppeteer vs react-cosmos
puppeteer has 95,792 GitHub stars, 9,590 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped yesterday. react-cosmos has 8,694 stars, 383 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 1,002% (95,792 vs 8,694 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; react-cosmos is written in TypeScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, react-cosmos 4%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (testing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| puppeteer | react-cosmos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 383 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick puppeteer if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick react-cosmos if
- You want the react-cosmos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and react-cosmos fits your workflow better
About puppeteer
Puppeteer Puppeteer is a JavaScript library which provides a high level API to control Chrome or Firefox over the DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi. Puppeteer runs in the headless (no visible UI) by default Get started API FAQ Contributing Troubleshooting Installation :::note Modern package managers (including npm (see the RFC), pnpm, Yarn, Bun, and Deno) block dependency install scripts by default. If the install script is blocked, Puppeteer will not download the browser during installation, leading to runtime errors. You can manually download the required browsers after installation by running…
read the full puppeteer overview →
About react-cosmos
React Cosmos Getting Started Choose one of the Getting Started guides to dive into React Cosmos. Check out the Next.js integration to get started with React Server Components. Visit reactcosmos.org/docs to view the full documentation. Community To chat with other community members you can join the React Cosmos Discord. You can also ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects on GitHub Discussions. Our Code of Conduct applies to all React Cosmos community channels. Contributing Please see our CONTRIBUTING.md. Become a Sponsor to support the ongoing development of React Cosmos. Live Demo Visit…
read the full react-cosmos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or react-cosmos more popular?
puppeteer has 95,792 GitHub stars and react-cosmos has 8,694. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and react-cosmos free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and react-cosmos under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and react-cosmos?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and react-cosmos in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, puppeteer or react-cosmos?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose react-cosmos if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.